I took this idea from Linda Holmes over at NPR, who has been making a 50 Wonderful Things from [whatever year] since 2010. I originally started with 50 like she does, but then whittled it down to half because I started writing a lot more than she does.
Since this blog is always about my enthusiasm for life, I figured I’d put my own spin on it and write about things that were worth celebrating in 2020. The NPR list is all about media (tv, movies, books), but I figured I’d just mash all of mine (personal and media) together. The last time I did a year retrospective (2016, lol), I broke it down into categories — personal, books and media. Since I’m just getting back into journaling, I’m just gonna mash them all together.
Admittedly, this was a hard year and the prevailing feeling is basically: Fuck 2020. But like I told the kiddos in my last Google Classroom post of the year — it’s also important to celebrate our wins and our victories. I want to always be honest in my writing and in my journaling, but I’ve also frequently fallen into the trap of only ever writing when things are going badly or I’m feeling sad. And my life has not been so sad or rough. I always think it’s a shame when I look back at previous blogs and all I find are the bad memories.
So. Anyway. That’s why this 2020 wrap up is going to be about the good things in 2020. I don’t think anyone — including me — is going to forget all the shit that happened in 2020. I’d like to put down onto something tangible the good and even great things that happened (in no particular order).
1. Our sectional couch. Listen. This couch is the single most expensive thing we’ve ever bought that’s not a house or a car. It seems weird to celebrate a couch but there were multiple times during this long year where we were so thankful to have such a comfortable couch that we could spend so much time in — and spend so much time we did. I’ve always loved sectionals and this one is big enough to fit multiple people and deep enough that Charlie and I can cuddle on it together. It’s also comfy enough that we can call asleep on it and feel like we got a good night’s rest.
2. Being a teacher again. It’s so funny, I basically keep leaving the classroom in search of greener pastures, but no matter what, I always come back to teaching. At this point I should just accept that this is the place I’m meant to be. No, not just accept it — celebrate it. Because dammit, I’m actually pretty good at this job and I enjoy it. There’s just a sort of light that opens up in me every time I step in the classroom and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of being a classroom teacher. This year has shown me not just how important this job is, but how passionate I really am about it and how nothing else really compares.
3. Charlie. We spent so much more time together this year not just because of the pandemic, but because I spent about half the year working from home. What that taught me was that even if you’ve known someone for 12 years and been with them for 10, you still learn more about them. Not just who they are, but who they are in relation to you and how they love you. Not to be cheesy, but also I’ll be cheesy since this is my journal, but it was so lovely to fall even more in love with him this year because of all the time we got to spend with one another. And on that note…
4. Happy 10 year wedding anniversary! Because of the pandemic, we didn’t get to do all that we might have wanted, but we were still able to celebrate together and marvel at 10 years. Double digits of marriage! It seems wild — sometimes it feels like 2010 was like, last year not ten (now eleven!) years ago. I love being married and being so happily married for so long is definitely something worth celebrating.
5. Crash Landing on You. Ok. Bit of a recency bias here? Perhaps. But I’m also not kidding when I say that this show was THE answer to every TV-related question in 2020. Best show? Crash Landing. Favorite show? Crash Landing. Comfort show? Crash Landing. Show that got me through 2020? Crash Landing. Charlie and I watched this twice all the way through and I’ve watched all the episodes out of order like four or five times, and some of my favorite moments like ten times. It’s so well-written, so warm, so life-affirming, so utterly romantic and just the exact type of show I needed to end 2020 with. I’ve also now recommended it to everyone that I love and they all love it, so I feel like, accomplished to have spread something I love so much to so many people I love so much.
6. Schitt’s Creek. What I needed more than anything this year was fiction that was life-affirming and uplifting. After years of hearing how great this show was, Charlie and I finally watched it and were not disappointed at all. What I love about this show was the way that it not only developed its characters over the course of its run, but the way that it privileged both biological family and found family. I love, love, LOVE me some found family, but I also love biological family stories and this one had both. Also, Alexis Rose is my everything. I love seeing characters who are unapologetically feminine in every possible way but who the narrative never treats as less just because they are.
7. Hypable. It’s been on hiatus for since COVID hit, but for a while I was one of the highest paid writers on Hypable. I’m so grateful for that experience and to have been able to take on so many different roles in this past year of being ‘freelance.’ I also learned that freelance isn’t really for me, lol, and that I prefer the stability of a 9-5, but I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned that with a company that took such good care of me.
8. Animal Crossing. This defined so many peoples’ COVID quarantine experience and Charlie and I were no exception. I haven’t logged in to my island in like, months now — I got my five stars and my island decorated how I wanted it and then kind of dipped — but for a while everyone was a part of this and I got to hang out with my friends even when we couldn’t actually hang out.
9. Percy Jackson. Atara and I read this together every day in the Spring/Summer and I am so grateful for the way it let me get to know my goddaughter more throughout the year and share something really special with her. That’s the power of fiction y’all.
10. Zoom/FaceTime/Duo. This year would have been so much harder without video conferencing tools. We lived on these platforms this year. I haven’t seen mom and dad since last Thanksgiving and I haven’t seen my family since late January and I miss them so much it hurts. Luckily, technology exists in such a way that I can still see everyone even when I can’t see them. If anything, I wish I had done more of this during the year. I’m so bad at keeping a schedule. Something to improve on in the new year (but that’s a different post lol).
11. Google Meets. Google Meets is what I use to meet with my students, so I felt like it deserved an entirely different post. While most schools required video conferencing classes, I was lucky enough to be in a place where we got to basically do whatever we wanted for our schooling. I started doing check-in Google Meets — really just for social-emotional health for the kiddos, and it’s been one of the most fun parts of virtual schooling. I get to build relationships with kiddos and hear from the ones I normally might not in a regular classroom.
12. Cuddles. This is kind of in-line with our nice couch, but also deserves its own slot. Because of all the time we have spent at home, me, Gabi and Charles have spent MUCH more time cuddling on the couch and just hanging out or reading or watching TV and it’s been such a wonderful way to spend time.
13. Deadwood. This was probably my second favorite show that we watched this year and definitely in my top five favorite shows ever, even if it got unceremoniously cancelled before it was clearly done telling its story. An oddly hopeful story, despite its grime and grittiness, about developing relationships and building communities even in the most lawless of places. Ian McShane as Al Swearengen is iconic casting and Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock is just a nice and handsome himbo to follow around for three seasons.
14. Never Have I Ever. I feel like it’s cheesy to say, but I really wish there had been a show like this when I was growing up. Seeing an Indian-American show about growing up — and having it be this funny and heartwarming and honest — was such a joy. Probably my third favorite show of 2020.
15. The Suns. I’ve always counted myself a Suns fan and have always kind of been Suns adjacent, but I feel like the 2019-2020 year was where it really blossomed. Charles has always indulged me in my DCEU fandom and has been a staunch defender of it and also an avid listener when I go on one of my rants; this year, I was able to repay that dedication to something I love by wholly dedicating myself to something that he has loved for so long. We watched all the Suns game, I became a part of Suns twitter and I learned a LOT about basketball and the Suns. One of the best things about being married is getting to share the things you love with the person you love the most, and I’m so grateful that I am now more genuinely able to share the Suns with Charlie. We watch their games together, talk about what happened and just get to spend time doing something that we both love and it’s wonderful.
Also, the 2020-2021 season is gonna be THE season, mark my words.
16. The (re?)discovery of kilig. All I want is to feel kilig and I thank 2020 for bringing this word back into my life.
17. Taylor Swift. Taylor gave us not one, but TWO albums that were her two best albums of her career. I spent so much time listening to Folklore and Evermore during this last year and just scream-singing to them in my car and crying to them in bed at like midnight. They’re the type of albums I’ve always wanted Taylor to release and really showed her talent as a writer and a musician AND brought into the fold so many skeptics. I feel like finally people saw what I’ve seen all along. I know I’m talking about her like she’s a close personal friend of mine, but given that I’ve been on the Tswift train since like, college, I do honestly feel…weirdly connected to her. If Crash Landing was the show that defined my 2020, Taylor Swift’s Folklore (and to a lesser extent, Evermore) was the album that defined my 2020.
18. Reconnecting with old friends because of fandom. Here’s the great thing about sharing a fandom with someone — you can not talk to them for years, but the minute you are both wildly passionate about the same thing, it’s like no time has passed at all. That’s how it always is for me and Kristine whenever a new Tswift album comes and this year, I reconnected with Joana, who I literally don’t think I’ve talked to in like, ten years, about CLOY and then about BinJin, haha. It’s been so much fun getting excited with someone about something I absolutely love. As I have always maintained, there are no good fandoms, only good fandom friends — and I am absolutely thankful for them.
19. Being reminded of how lucky I am to have the family I do. Ate Rizel took this picture of Nanay and Tatay as they were on Zoom with us for Thanksgiving. I miss them. I miss all my family. But I’m grateful that I have such a great family to miss. If nothing else, this pandemic has taught me and reminded me just how lucky I am to have the family I do.
20. This hilarious post about Thanksgiving foods from MR.
21. The Boys. For as gruesome and grimdark as this show wants to be, I was absolutely thrown off balance by how the second season was — dare I say — hopeful. This year, I only really wanted uplifting, life-affirming media and I know how weird it is to say that The Boys was either of these things but…The Boys season 2 was both of these things. As hamfisted and inelegant as ever in its messaging about superheroes and right and wrong, but surprisingly poignant when it came to its messaging about friendship, relationships and how we can build ourselves back up and back together even after the worst traumas and setbacks in our lives. The Boys in season 1 said there are no heroes worth worshipping and while it didn’t build those heroes up in season 2, it did tell us that while there may be no heroes worth worshipping — and maybe no heroes at all — there are friends worth saving and relationships worth building regardless. That’s the kind of hope I needed in this year.
22. Gabi and her love of our backyard. Gabi loves rolling around our background and sunning herself, and it’s worth it to see her joy even when she comes in looking like this.
23. Kendra and James. What else is there to say except that these two are the mainstays in my life now for fifteen years running. I’m as bad as ever when it comes to maintaining communication with people, but thankfully, these two have stuck by me even when I ghost them for months at a time. That stayed true even in this pandemic, when I had more time to Facetime everyone but ended up retreating more than ever. We spent the latter half of the year more active in our groupchat and my goal is for that to continue in 2021.
24. A 55″ TV. Listen. I know this seems like a materialistic thing to celebrate — especially since we only got in like with seven days left of 2020 — but despite the materialism of it all and the short length, it’s absolutely worth celebrating. One, we had the same 27 inch TV for like almost 10 years of our marriage. Two, we not get to enjoy movies and TV shows and, most importantly, the NBA on a big screen. Three, it’s nice to buy nice things for ourselves. So, yes, I am very thankful for this TV.
25. Kuya and Ate. I’m bad at group chats, but the one with Kuya and Ate has stayed active all through the year. It wasn’t until I got older than I realized that not everyone gets along with their siblings the way that I do with mine, and despite a few bumps in the road and our increasing differences as we get older (although like, I only say increasing differences because the difference between like 1 and 3 or 4 is still an increase), they’re still the two people whom I have so much love for. I haven’t gotten to see them this year at all and that hurts me, but just like with everything else, I’ve become more and more aware of the fact that they’re two of the best people in my life and how lucky I am to have them.
The Consummate Enthusiast 